DIY Niacinamide Recipes: Help!
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Tue Dec 15, 2009 10:20 pm

Hello,

I have some Niacinamide powder that I'm really eager to incorporate into my skin routine but problem is, I'm a serious slob when it comes to DIY skincare. I'd like to make a simple toner that won't leave residue so I tried a witch hazel/Niacinamide mix but I think the alcohol in the witch hazel is irritating my skin.

I chose the witch hazel with alcohol because I didn't want to include a preservative. I do have some alcohol-free witch hazel but just a small amount that I will try next with a preservative.

What's the suggested amount of preservative (Cosmocil CQ) in a 100 ml (approx 3.38 oz) of liquid?

My main question though is, what other base(liquid) can I use to make a Niacinamide toner? and this may be a stupid question but where can I find distilled water?

Sorry for all the questions and pardon my complete ignorance on DIY. Thank you!

free skin care · Wed Dec 16, 2009 12:23 am

I make a Niacinamide and Glucosamine serum - here's the recipe:

G & N Serum 1oz/30ml

4 tsp. Distilled water
3 ml DMI (10%) (Preservative)
½ tsp. Glucosamine (5%)
¼ tsp. Niacinamide (2.5%)
1 tsp. Glycerin

To make a toner - what about putting the Niacinamide in Green Tea. Just use a couple of tea bags to make the tea - use distilled water. I just use the water from the supermarket that's meant for filling steam irons with. You could also add a preservative - I use DMI.

Also, instead of the Green Tea, you could use Rosewater. Rosewater is a beautiful toner. I buy the concentrate from the chemist and make it up myself 1:40. HTH.

Wed Dec 16, 2009 1:44 am

Thanks so much for your response!

Green tea and rosewater are great suggestions! Thanks! I hope I can find some distilled water in my local supermarket.

free skin care · Thu Dec 31, 2009 9:53 pm

Hi Persnickety, Niacinamide is very water soluble, so you can mix it into distilled water, aloe vera juice, etc. Your choice is endless.

But to keep it simple and so that you know if it's working for you, why not just add it in water and hyaluronic acid and make a simple serum? I wouldn't even bother with preservatives (the whole point DYI skincare to me is to avoid adding nasties such as certain preservatives). Make enough to last you for 2 weeks only and put it in the fridge.

I hate to disappoint you, but niacinamide that you buy in a powder form that you use to make up your own skin care products will not work as well as commercial products such as Olay Regernerist. They have invented a skin-friendly version, not just putting raw material into a pot.

Try it and see. Good luck.

free skin care · Sat Jan 02, 2010 9:37 am

You may want to read here they sell Wholesale as well as Retail!
Everything they sell is made specifficaly for skin care and cosmetic use only!

http://www.makingcosmetics.com/Vitamins/Vitamin-B3-Niacinamide-USP-p298.html

free skin care · Mon Jan 04, 2010 3:10 pm

arielstar08 wrote:

I hate to disappoint you, but niacinamide that you buy in a powder form that you use to make up your own skin care products will not work as well as commercial products such as Olay Regernerist. They have invented a skin-friendly version, not just putting raw material into a pot.

Arielstar08, why do you feel that the niacinamide powder will not produce results as well as a commercial product?

free skin care · Tue Jan 05, 2010 8:38 am

I think niacinamide in powder form and bought from a diy skin cosmetics business should be fine. The fact that it is water soluble should mean it gets into the skin easier via a distilled water or alcohol solution.

free skin care · Tue Jan 05, 2010 9:15 am

jedder wrote:

I think niacinamide in powder form and bought from a diy skin cosmetics business should be fine. The fact that it is water soluble should mean it gets into the skin easier via a distilled water or alcohol solution.

jedder,

I agree 100% seeing as water is our most basic yet effective penatration enhancer! Alchohol as well for those who choose to use it, as some don't care for it in their DIY recipes.

DM
Smile

free skin care · Sun Mar 21, 2010 8:05 am

This recipe is from a regular on the skin care board on MUA.

From (username) skincareman

link to his notepad. He uses witchhazel

http://www.makeupalley.com/user/notepad/skincareman

Skin Care Recipes
Niacinamide Toner

As my skin loves distilled witch hazel, glycerin and niacinamide I figured I should try incorporating them into my own home-made toning/treatment lotion.

To a 100 ml spray bottle I add:

* 85 ml distilled witch hazel (Boots brand right now, which contains approximately 14% alcohol, as such, no preservative is required)
* 10 ml vegetable glycerin
* 5 g (approximately 1.5 teaspoons for those who don't/won't weigh it out - I prefer to weight it) niacinamide powder (from gardenofwisdom.com)

I shake this for about a minute to dissolve the niacinamide powder and that's it! Before use I give it a quick shake to ensure it's well mixed. The final concentration of niacinamide is 5% and the pH is between 5 and 6, which is ideal for niacinamide to be effective and is also very skin-friendly.

Niacinamide has become a Holy Grail ingredient for me. I originally started to incorporate it by using Olay Regenerist Daily Regenerating Serum (fragrance-free version). Wanting more (for less of course!) I then decided that I should play around with making my own treatment product. Since starting to use this (around May 2009) I've seen my skin become much less sensitive (to the point that I can tolerate the regular use of retinoids, BHA and AHA's), my skin tone even out a lot, my skin has become a lot firmer and I definitely have less trouble with acne (I'll just add to that and say I've not had a single spot in over 4 months now!).

One downside to using niacinamide (particularly if it's in a high concentration) is that it can cause flushing. This happened a little with me when I jumped from the Olay serum to my own treatment, so what I did was mix a batch at a lower concentration (2%). For the next few weeks I stepped it up by 1% each week until I reached 5% and was able to use it without flushing.

I have some links to sites with information on the many benefits of niacinamide in my Links of Interest section further down the page if you're interested in learning more about this wondeful ingredient.

(Above section copy and pasted. Quite a few have tried this from MUA)

Tue Aug 25, 2015 10:36 pm

Hi all
I have made my niacinamide serum and C,E and ferulic serum however when I use both one after another at first it penetrates into skin very well then after 30 minutes I tried to gently rub my face with my finger it came off with a kind of white residues then my skin feels cry dry. Have anyone experienced the issue like I do? And does anyone know how to solve this problem?HELP!!! Sad

Mon Nov 02, 2015 5:51 pm

Hi
I made the witch hazel toner as described from MUA. My skin hated all the alcohol from the distilled witch hazel. Having at a few retail brands with witch hazel, they talk about witch hazel water in their ingredients, not sure if that's different. Eh?

I had previously been using a toner with lactic acid In it and I think my skin missed that too.
Going to try one of the distilled water & preservative recipes instead, and add lactic acid. I know it needs quite a low pH to work, so may have to search around for different recipes; or even make two products.....
We'll see.
Thanks

free skin care · Mon Nov 02, 2015 8:13 pm

Niacinamide is happiest at pH 6. Otherwise it hydrolyzes and may cause flushing, burning, stinging. Using it with D-panthenol, N-acetyl glucosamine, biotin and vitamin E will give you a nice product.

http://stores.skinessentialactives.com/biotin-n-acetyl-d-glucosamine-nag-niacinamide-b3-synergy/

not affiliated.

free skin care · Tue Nov 03, 2015 12:19 am

What about adding Niacinamide to the Eucerin Clarifying Toner?

Ingredietns are Water, Dipropylene Glycol, Glyceryl Glucoside, Glycerine, Sodium Hyaluronate, Decyl Glucoside, Sodium Citrate, Citric Acid, Cocamidopropyl Betaine, Trisodium EDTA, Sodium Chloride, 1,2-Hexanediol, Phenoxyethanol

Pretty sure pH is 5.5, so should be fine, right? I'm worried because of the citric acid.

What about caffeine powder and aspirin? Right now I dissolved all three in water and so far I like the results but wanna combine these into my Eucerin toner.

free skin care · Thu Sep 07, 2017 6:31 pm

Add 3-5 % into your favourite commercial toner.
It's highly soluble in water and cheap. So it doesn't matter if most goes to the cotton pad.

Fri Mar 29, 2019 1:15 pm

Hi All,

I have dry bulk powder of NAG and Niacinamide, but don't know how to mix it ( what portions of each) to make a 4% solution.

I saw a post from a few years ago that mentioned using 1/2 tsp of NAG and 1/4 Niacinamide. When mixed with water, what percentage will that be? I can't find that info anywhere on the website.

Thanks!

free skin care · Fri Mar 29, 2019 2:10 pm

For weight/weight % solutions the denominator is the total solution weight. So to make a 4% niacinamide solution in water, you would weigh out 4 grams of niacinamide and mix with 96 grams of water (which is the same as 96 mL of water).

Sat Mar 30, 2019 10:25 am

Thanks! I guess that would be around 1 teaspoon. I don't have a scale to weight the powder, but read that 1 teaspoon is about 3.75 grams.

In the beginning I'll try less because of the flushing effect that happens if too much is used.

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